"...if you ask a general question like, “Who would you rather have behind you at an ATM, a black guy or an Asian?” almost everyone, even other black Americans, would say the Asian if they were being honest. But, what if the black guy was middle-aged and wearing a suit while the Asian was dressed ratty, smelled bad, looked like he was on drugs, and had face and neck tattoos? Suddenly, most people’s answer would flip."
Decades ago, when the whole "black people get pulled over/arrested/convicted at higher rates than white people!" frenzy was going on, Columbia University actually conducted a study using this exact parameter. They put black students dressed in "business casual"--chinos, polo shirts, v-neck sweaters and loafers on a street corner and they had no problem hailing a cab. When they put the exact same students out there dressed in "X" hoodies, baggy low-riders and backward ballcaps...let's say, the hailing success rate dropped off dramatically.
I also remember someone commenting on the experiment saying "If you had to get on a subway car late at night and it was full of black people, what would your reaction be if they were wearing hoodies and low-riders? ...Now how about if they were carrying bibles?"
I used to work with juvenile delinquents and one of them, who was in there for dealing drugs, was black, and liked to dress kind of "street" complained that every time he went in a store, you'd hear some kind of call over the intercom. He thought they were being told to watch him because they thought he might steal things and I was thinking like, "Well, that just shows the system works" because that kid was a punk who probably would steal things if he thought he could get away with it.
On the flip side of that, when I was younger, I used to dress kind of "alternative." Big, sloppy clothes. Hair down in my face. Friendship bracelets up my arm. I didn't look like a thug, but my dress said, "This person is DIFFERENT" -- and that was a lot less common than it is today. I was walking with a friend to his apartment and I saw a nice gold chain laying on one of his neighbors doorsteps. I picked up and knocked on her door because I figured she lost it. She could hear that she was kind of scared she looked through the peephole. Eventually, I got her to open up and gave her the necklace back. Everybody doesn't fit the image they signal, but it's not irrational to pay attention to the messages people are trying to send when they dress and act a certain way.
As I tartly remind people who whine about "stereotypes," those things don't come out of thin air.
What it comes down to is Niven's Law and its corollary: "Don't throw sh*t at an armed man." and "Don't stand next to someone who's throwing sh*t at an armed man."
If you don't want people to stereotype you, don't invite that by dressing, talking and acting out the stereotype.
And it has to be said, even then, there's room for, shall we say, a heightened level of situational awareness. Years ago--the 1990s, I believe--Keith Mano, who was a contributing editor at NR, wrote a column about an encounter he had going into his regular subway stop.
I won't bore you with the details, but the bottom line was, had he not been preternaturally alert to the *well-dressed* black man lounging around for no apparent reason at the bottom of the steps, he'd have been lying dead in a pool of his own blood.
In my early years I worked blue-collar jobs. Then I started college and fell in love with computers. In the early 80s I started in Information Technology for an insurance company, and from there worked my way up to Chief Technology Officer for a large bank and then for a large health care company. Today I am CEO of a smaller business.
It was my career in IT that convinced me that we had finally progressed in civil rights to become effectively gender-blind and race-blind. The staff of the large IT departments that I ended up overseeing where like the United Nations. It was truly equal and based on merit and only merit.
This was during the 1980s.
What the hell happened to cause us to waste that progress and slip backwards into gender and race conflict?
I do not categorically dismiss leftists because I have some of them in my family. I limit my interactions with leftists because I think they have broken moral compasses, and I have to edit the truthful things I'd like to say because I know they will be offended, and by the same token I will no longer tolerate them berating Trump voters, white conservatives, or bible believing Christians without pushback. It is the content of their character that matters, no matter what the CRT/DEI grifters demand that you agree with. Because that limits what we can safely discuss, I find myself bored by their vapid notions and emotional responses. Race hustlers are a problem I have with minorities, esp with latin americans who insist that we have no right to deport illegal aliens. How a fact of geography, i.e. brown people live south of the equator, gives them the moral authority to ignore the laws of the country they chose to invade, well, it makes me unhappy with many of our hispanic congressmen for whom skin color, and national origin matter more.
"...if you ask a general question like, “Who would you rather have behind you at an ATM, a black guy or an Asian?” almost everyone, even other black Americans, would say the Asian if they were being honest. But, what if the black guy was middle-aged and wearing a suit while the Asian was dressed ratty, smelled bad, looked like he was on drugs, and had face and neck tattoos? Suddenly, most people’s answer would flip."
Decades ago, when the whole "black people get pulled over/arrested/convicted at higher rates than white people!" frenzy was going on, Columbia University actually conducted a study using this exact parameter. They put black students dressed in "business casual"--chinos, polo shirts, v-neck sweaters and loafers on a street corner and they had no problem hailing a cab. When they put the exact same students out there dressed in "X" hoodies, baggy low-riders and backward ballcaps...let's say, the hailing success rate dropped off dramatically.
I also remember someone commenting on the experiment saying "If you had to get on a subway car late at night and it was full of black people, what would your reaction be if they were wearing hoodies and low-riders? ...Now how about if they were carrying bibles?"
I used to work with juvenile delinquents and one of them, who was in there for dealing drugs, was black, and liked to dress kind of "street" complained that every time he went in a store, you'd hear some kind of call over the intercom. He thought they were being told to watch him because they thought he might steal things and I was thinking like, "Well, that just shows the system works" because that kid was a punk who probably would steal things if he thought he could get away with it.
On the flip side of that, when I was younger, I used to dress kind of "alternative." Big, sloppy clothes. Hair down in my face. Friendship bracelets up my arm. I didn't look like a thug, but my dress said, "This person is DIFFERENT" -- and that was a lot less common than it is today. I was walking with a friend to his apartment and I saw a nice gold chain laying on one of his neighbors doorsteps. I picked up and knocked on her door because I figured she lost it. She could hear that she was kind of scared she looked through the peephole. Eventually, I got her to open up and gave her the necklace back. Everybody doesn't fit the image they signal, but it's not irrational to pay attention to the messages people are trying to send when they dress and act a certain way.
As I tartly remind people who whine about "stereotypes," those things don't come out of thin air.
What it comes down to is Niven's Law and its corollary: "Don't throw sh*t at an armed man." and "Don't stand next to someone who's throwing sh*t at an armed man."
If you don't want people to stereotype you, don't invite that by dressing, talking and acting out the stereotype.
And it has to be said, even then, there's room for, shall we say, a heightened level of situational awareness. Years ago--the 1990s, I believe--Keith Mano, who was a contributing editor at NR, wrote a column about an encounter he had going into his regular subway stop.
I won't bore you with the details, but the bottom line was, had he not been preternaturally alert to the *well-dressed* black man lounging around for no apparent reason at the bottom of the steps, he'd have been lying dead in a pool of his own blood.
In my early years I worked blue-collar jobs. Then I started college and fell in love with computers. In the early 80s I started in Information Technology for an insurance company, and from there worked my way up to Chief Technology Officer for a large bank and then for a large health care company. Today I am CEO of a smaller business.
It was my career in IT that convinced me that we had finally progressed in civil rights to become effectively gender-blind and race-blind. The staff of the large IT departments that I ended up overseeing where like the United Nations. It was truly equal and based on merit and only merit.
This was during the 1980s.
What the hell happened to cause us to waste that progress and slip backwards into gender and race conflict?
I suggest it was Barack Obama.
I do not categorically dismiss leftists because I have some of them in my family. I limit my interactions with leftists because I think they have broken moral compasses, and I have to edit the truthful things I'd like to say because I know they will be offended, and by the same token I will no longer tolerate them berating Trump voters, white conservatives, or bible believing Christians without pushback. It is the content of their character that matters, no matter what the CRT/DEI grifters demand that you agree with. Because that limits what we can safely discuss, I find myself bored by their vapid notions and emotional responses. Race hustlers are a problem I have with minorities, esp with latin americans who insist that we have no right to deport illegal aliens. How a fact of geography, i.e. brown people live south of the equator, gives them the moral authority to ignore the laws of the country they chose to invade, well, it makes me unhappy with many of our hispanic congressmen for whom skin color, and national origin matter more.
Reasoned, well-written piece, John, that probably would have a few people scratching their heads and re-thinking their thoughts on the subject.